Accusing the Opposition of taking a U-turn on the farm reforms, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today invited agitating farmers for talks on the farm laws and said the Government was ready to exchange views and resolve their apprehensions.

In the same vein, he also hit out at deleterious influences from abroad, referring to them as ‘foreign destructive ideology’, as well as a new “breed” of agitators ~ ‘Andolanjivi’ ~ in the country who cannot live without a tumult.

In an apparent reference to tweets by pop star Rihanna and Swedish climateactivist Greta Thunberg favouring the agitating farmers, Modi played on the term ‘Foreign Direct Investment or FDI’ to warn against deleterious influences from abroad.

Replying to the Rajya Sabha debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address, he said “options” were still open, and there were no tensions in the talks, even after several rounds of discussions. The Prime Minister said the Opposition, including the Congress Party, had from time to time, called for reforms in agriculture, and it was not clear why they were opposed to them now.

India was not a static society, he said, and legislative changes were brought gradually, he said. Time had come to bring reforms in the agriculture sector. The proposed reforms should be given a chance, and if shortcomings were found, they would be corrected, he said.

The Prime Minister said the MSP(Minimum Support Price) was there and it would continue, as it was now.The sanctity of the place where he was giving this assurance should be respected, he said.

Modi said reforms were opposed even on earlier occasions, but they were pursued with good results. Even former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had referred to the rigidities in the marketing system which prevented the farmers from getting good returns, and offered to remove the handicaps, the PM said.

He said the Opposition had made several speeches on the farmers’ agitation but concentrated on the manner it was being conducted; there was no attempt to refer to the spirit of the laws. The farmers would only land in darkness, if there was politics on the reforms, he said.

Modi said the farm laws would benefit the small farmers particularly, whose number had risen to 86 per cent. The number of those owning up to half a hectare of land had risen from 51 per cent to 68 per cent.

As the Prime Minister rose to give his 80 minute reply, the Trinamul Congress members staged a walk-out. The Motion of Thanks to the President’s address was adopted by the House after rejecting all amendments moved by the Opposition.

He said by increasing the ambit of Fasal Bima Yojana in 2014, claims worth `90,000 crore have been settled benefiting small farmers in the country. He said nearly `1.15 lakh crore rupees were directly transferred into the accounts of the farmers under the PMKISAN scheme.